With a sweet $18 billion of cash in the bank, it was just a matter of time until Apple would consider a major acquisition. Who would have thought that Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit would be their object of desire.

After years of refusing to install extensions in my browsers or proxies on my machine, I have, for the past few months, started to work seriously on blocking connections to ad servers. The reason? The increasing number of security issues linked to these ad networks and their ability to inject code in relatively "trusted" web sites. Are such drive-by downloads...

Overwhelmed with URLs that friends, family, and co-workers had sent me to, I was shocked to find that my "to be visited" folder had over 150 items, some nearly two years old. So, I called Hazel.

Progress bars allow end-users to anticipate wait times. They present bars that fill from left to right. These bars indicate the degree to which a task has finished. Progress bars work best for long waits where providing state feedback allows your users to retain the feel of control.

Imagine giving your iPhone the power of a nearby eight-core Mac Pro.

TaskPaper looks like a simple to-do application at first glance. And, at its heart, that is what it is. But, its real value lies in the multi-access ecosystem that includes a free web service, an Open Source utility for your own web site, and add-on modules for popular applications like BBedit, Textmate, and Vim.

OpenDNS works around my Leopard DNS problems. Is Safari 3.1 really that much faster? When did the right click start doing stuff in Google Docs document list?

The US TSA produced a video for a blog entry about their analysis of the Macbook air from the point of view of getting through security checks. Guess what platform they made it difficult to view on? You get one guess...

For years, the Macintosh world has lived under the assumption that Vista's look is crap and Mac OS X rocks. Everything on the Mac side screams quality and reliability, elegance and composure, style and attitude. Compared to our elegance, unique style and peaceful workflow, Vista's bumpy, bright, tawdry interface does not stand a chance. Or does it? Vista's interface is...

Like many Mac afficionados, I have to resort to using Windows for some of the work I do, and while working on a Windows machine, I rely on the familiar QuickTime and iTunes combo to add some music to my work day. The installer for this software includes a special stand-alone utility which helps keep the software up-to-date. Much like the Software Update utility on the Mac. The most recent update from last week, though, presented a fresh copy of Apple's Safari webbrowser even if the software was not installed yet. And the discussion on the 'Net on whether this behavior is acceptable, or not, is now in full swing.